Mancini Believes Balotelli Is the "Best Italian"

byDavidonNovember 24, 2010

Italian-born manager Roberto Mancini believes that young Mario Balotelli might just be the “best Italian there is”.

Mancini, who has coached the Blues for just under a year now, has the pressure of finishing this EPL season in the top four and currently his side is just out of the race. The second year manager of the club will have to sweat those hopes out for the rest of the season, but one thing he thinks will help down the stretch is the addition of Balotelli from last year’s treble winners of Inter Milan. Mancini believes that his young promising player from his former club is the real deal and not worthy of a transfer to any team.

Mancini told Max magazine that “he probably wouldn’t have let him go”, but admitted that he didn’t know exactly what transpired with his former club:

I wasn’t at Inter for the last two years so I don’t know what happened, but given that Mario could become the best Italian player there is then I probably wouldn’t have let him go. I say probably.

I love Balotelli. Sure, he’s young and like all youngsters he makes mistakes, but I never get upset with him.

It’s an interesting thing for Mancini to say considering he has only given the often injured young forward four starts this season, but it certainly isn’t a shock that Mancini thinks his forward is extremely talented. With Balotelli it has never been a question of talent. The forward is among the most talented young footballers in the world. The question has always been whether or not Balotelli has the maturity and heart to make a long term difference in the game and for one club.

But considering Italy’s fairly weak generation of young footballers in their teens and early twenties, Balotelli is likely the cream of the crop. Hopefully he can keep on track and stay out of trouble in the future because he might be Italy’s only hope at future World Cups.